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History of coarrays and SPMD parallelism in Fortran

Authors:

Jon SteidelAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 4, Issue HOPL

Article No.: 72, Pages 1 - 30

https://doi.org/10.1145/3386322

Published: 12 June 2020 Publication History

Abstract

The coarray programming model is an expression of the Single-Program-Multiple-Data (SPMD) programming model through the simple device of adding a codimension to the Fortran language. A data object declared with a codimension is a coarray object. Codimensions express the idea that some objects are located in local memory while others are located in remote memory. Coarray syntax obeys most of the same rules for normal array syntax. It is familiar to the Fortran programmer so the use of coarray syntax is natural and intuitive. Although the basic idea is quite simple, inserting it into the language definition turned out to be difficult.

In addition, the process was complicated by rapidly changing hardware and heated arguments over whether parallelism should be supported best as an interface to language-independent libraries, as a set of directives superimposed on languages, or as a set of specific extensions to existing languages.

In this paper, we review both the early history of coarrays and also their development into a part of Fortran 2008 and eventually into a larger part of Fortran 2018. Coarrays have been used, for example, in weather forecasting and in neural networks and deep learning.

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Cited By

Kedward LAradi BCertik OCurcic MEhlert SEngel PGoswami RHirsch MLozada-Blanco AMagnin VMarkus APagone EPribec IRichardson BSnyder HUrban JVandenplas J(2022)The State of FortranComputing in Science & Engineering10.1109/MCSE.2022.315986224:2(63-72)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2022.3159862
Diaz JPinna MZvelindovsky APagonabarraga I(2021)Parallel Hybrid Simulations of Block Copolymer Nanocomposites using Coarray FortranMacromolecular Theory and Simulations10.1002/mats.20210000730:4Online publication date: 31-Mar-2021
https://doi.org/10.1002/mats.202100007
Weeks NLuecke GPrabhu G(2020)Refining Fortran Failed Images2020 IEEE/ACM Fifth International Workshop on Extreme Scale Programming Models and Middleware (ESPM2)10.1109/ESPM251964.2020.00009(1-11)Online publication date: Nov-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/ESPM251964.2020.00009

Index Terms

History of coarrays and SPMD parallelism in Fortran
1. Applied computing
  1. Physical sciences and engineering
2. Computing methodologies
  1. Distributed computing methodologies
    1. Distributed programming languages
  2. Parallel computing methodologies
    1. Parallel programming languages

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cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages

Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages Volume 4, Issue HOPL

June 2020

1524 pages

EISSN:2475-1421

DOI:10.1145/3406494

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Copyright © 2020 Owner/Author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 12 June 2020

Published in PACMPL Volume 4, Issue HOPL

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Cited By

Kedward LAradi BCertik OCurcic MEhlert SEngel PGoswami RHirsch MLozada-Blanco AMagnin VMarkus APagone EPribec IRichardson BSnyder HUrban JVandenplas J(2022)The State of FortranComputing in Science & Engineering10.1109/MCSE.2022.315986224:2(63-72)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2022.3159862
Diaz JPinna MZvelindovsky APagonabarraga I(2021)Parallel Hybrid Simulations of Block Copolymer Nanocomposites using Coarray FortranMacromolecular Theory and Simulations10.1002/mats.20210000730:4Online publication date: 31-Mar-2021
https://doi.org/10.1002/mats.202100007
Weeks NLuecke GPrabhu G(2020)Refining Fortran Failed Images2020 IEEE/ACM Fifth International Workshop on Extreme Scale Programming Models and Middleware (ESPM2)10.1109/ESPM251964.2020.00009(1-11)Online publication date: Nov-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/ESPM251964.2020.00009

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